If the idea appeals, give it a go: it’s fun in a rather unusual beige box

For

Clever wireless music system works well

goes very, very loud

not cheap, but then not overly expensive, either

Against

Your neighbours will hate you

given our weather, how much do you really need one?

Reviewed on 13th August 2007

Fancy some tunes while you wrestle with your barbecue? Soundcast's new OutCast/iCast combination could be just the ticket for you.

It works like this: the iCast is a almost-standard iPod dock. You place it wherever you like in your home, and it'll link wirelessly (using 2.4GHz technology) to the OutCast tower.

This is a fairly portable, all-weather, battery-powered speaker system, with 100 watts of digital amplification and a 20cm bass driver arranged to fire downwards.

There are also four tweeters arrayed to fire outwards from each ‘corner' of the unit, coupled to a 2.4GHz receiver, with the whole shebang fed by a rechargeable battery offering a claimed 10 hours of use.

And it works, too: pop your iPod in the iCast, lug your OutCast into the garden (or in our case, out to the bottom of the car park), and you're away, with full control over your iPod's music.

More after the break

It'll also go loud – really loud! – without undue stress. Is it hi-fi? Not really; but fun? Oh yes...